Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 December 4

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1861 painting

merchant brigantine. On December 4, 1872, en route to Genoa from New York, the ship was discovered abandoned and deserted off the Azores Islands in a disheveled but seaworthy condition, with no obvious signs of sudden catastrophe. The final entry in the log, dated ten days previously, was a routine statement of the ship's position. There were ample provisions on board, and the cargo was intact. None of those who had been on board were seen or heard from again. At the subsequent salvage hearings in Gibraltar the court's officers found no evidence of conspiracy or foul play. Over time the story has been distorted by false detail and fanciful explanations, including attacks by giant squid and paranormal intervention. The mystery has been recounted and dramatized in documentaries, novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become synonymous with unexplained desertion. After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners until, in 1885, the ship was wrecked off the coast of Haiti in an attempted insurance fraud. (Full article...

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Frontispiece of A New System of Domestic Cookery

... that A New System of Domestic Cookery (frontispiece pictured) has been called "a publishing sensation" and "the most famous cookery book of its time"?
... that the Himalayan field rat is closely related to the brown rat?
... that ISIS
?

... that Chinese soprano Operalia, The World Opera Competition
?

... that in the armies of Mycenaean Greece, chariots were initially used as fighting vehicles, but by the 13th century BC their role was probably limited to battlefield transport?

... that the
al-Judeida was a Crusader
estate called "Gidideh"?

... that Archibald Main, who was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1939, was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Glasgow?

... that the Yokohama B-Corsairs won the bj league in just their second year of existence?

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Leon Smith

At least 14 people are killed and 21 injured in
a shooting in San Bernardino
, California.

2014 Burkinabé uprising

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The International Monetary Fund approves adding the Chinese renminbi to its basket of reserve currencies.
In tennis, the Davis Cup concludes with Great Britain (captain Leon Smith pictured) defeating Belgium in the final.
In
Edmonton Eskimos defeat the Ottawa Redblacks to win the Grey Cup
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A bomb attack on a bus kills 14 presidential security guards in Tunis, Tunisia.

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On this day...

December 4: Navy Day in India

A transit of Venus

1639 – English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus (pictured).
Ram Mohan Roy
.

1909 – The first Grey Cup game, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, was held.
1979 – Bruce George Peter Lee set fire to a family home in Hull, England; after his arrest he revealed that he had started nine other fatal fires in the area.
1992 – US President George H. W. Bush ordered American troops into Somalia to help provide humanitarian aid and restore order during the ongoing Somali Civil War.

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Hurricane Andrew

The

Category 5 status. When Andrew struck Florida and Louisiana in August, it became the second-costliest hurricane to hit the United States. Damages were estimated to be about $26.5 billion and 68 people were killed. (Full list...

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An 1890

counterfeiting

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Other denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, $100, $1000

Banknote: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)

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